December 2009

Educational Games in School

Submitted by Marli Mesibov on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 12:14
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About 10% of K-12 learning takes place in the formal school system, according to a study at University Preparatory School in Redding, California. Homework is a wonderful tool to encourage bridging the gap between formal learning and learning in the home, and educational video games are doing their part to further connect the two. In addition, video games can bring an educational focus to the informal, exploration-based learning that takes place at play.

Interested to read up on this?

10 Red Balloons

Submitted by Marli Mesibov on Mon, 12/07/2009 - 17:16
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On December 5th, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) set 10 red balloons in various locations around the US. Teams proceeded to use social networks (primarily Twitter) to pass along information on where the balloons were moored. DARPA planned to test out how accurately social networks could pass along information.

Responses were originally to be accepted until December 14th. How well do social networks pass along information? Well enough that a team from MIT determined the locations of all 10 balloons by Saturday afternoon.

Impressive!

Facebook's Panic Button

Submitted by Marli Mesibov on Mon, 12/07/2009 - 17:07
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For months the headlines have read variations on a theme... "is your child safe on Facebook?" Now Facebook is answering with the "Panic Button," in the UK. Soon there will be a way for children and parents in Great Britain to instantly report online abuse and illicit activity directly to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre. Can the US be far behind?

Teens and Technology

Submitted by Robin Brandenburg on Mon, 12/07/2009 - 12:33
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“Wuz4dina?” If you are the parent of a teenager, you’ve probably received this text from your child. The average number of monthly texts for a 13- to 17-year-old teen is 1,742, according to a Nielsen study of cell phone usage. The same study found that the typical U.S. mobile subscriber sends and receives more SMS text messages than telephone calls. You’ll find teenagers using chat acronyms with a variety of communication tools including: online chat rooms, online forums/bulletin boards, instant messaging, and social networking sites.

"Unfriend" is the Word of the Year

Submitted by Marli Mesibov on Fri, 12/04/2009 - 16:07
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Oxford English Dictionary has chosen "Unfriend" as the word of the year. The news came out almost exactly one month ago, but the debates on "unfriend"'s merits as a word continue.

The OED offers their process here, which is a good read - http://blog.oup.com/2009/11/word-of-the-year/ The word must be widespread (certainly, "unfriend" fits the bill), but somehow previous year's words seem slightly less colloquial and more relevant... take 2008's "hypermiling" and 2007's "locavore."

President Obama says "read to your child."

Submitted by Marli Mesibov on Wed, 12/02/2009 - 15:27
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"Turn off the TV, put away the video games, and read to your child."
-President Obama

President Obama's "Educate to Innovate" program is getting a response from educational computer game companies. There's a mild irony here, but it's also a wonderful illustration of the country (and world)'s current move toward technology as an educational source.